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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781600372049 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Morgan James Publishing |
| Publication date: | 10/01/2007 |
| Pages: | 276 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.08(w) x 9.04(h) x 0.69(d) |
About the Author
Lorrie and Darrell Fields met in the fall of 1983 in Hawaii and were married in April 0f 1984. They have three children. The couple pastored together until 2005 when Lorrie and Darrell transitioned from their church to pursue prompting the message of "The Seed of a Nation," through speaking engagements and book signings.
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
INTO THE LIGHT
See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.
Colossians 2:8
The idea of freedom has never ceased to be vitally important to any age, in any culture. However, the inherent realities of freedom are forever dependent on its continuance and application. America prides herself in the promise of freedom. But there is a problem; our interpretations and prejudices can contrive a freedom that changes in definition from generation to generation (sometimes from circumstance to circumstance). As freedom changes by the perspectives in which it is viewed, some gain, and tragically, some lose.
The enormous task of making freedom available is God-sized. The historical evidence you are about to read makes the conclusion irrevocable: men alone cannot create or sustain it. The mystery, amazingly, is that God wants and waits to use people to introduce the kind of freedom that only He can offer. William Penn was one of those persons. Through divine guidance and his indomitable spirit Penn founded the colony of Pennsylvania on a grass roots government so powerful that it became the building blocks of a new nation. This story of his life and contributions are presented herein not as a biography to elevate Penn or Pennsylvania, but as historical proof that God limits Himself to people and is yearning for the continuation of "His" story to any who would ask in any place and any time.
Because of William Penn's precursory guidance in American liberties, it becomes imperative, if our judgments are to be accurate regarding our present culture, to look carefully into the world that produced such a man. What he meant by freedom and the Separation of Church and State may surprise you, and is addressed in later chapters. For now, I pray that as you peek into the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the spark that ignited Penn for his life purpose may help you — and all of us — sort through the realities of this new millennium and prepare us for what lies ahead.
The late Dr. George P. Donehoo, foremost authority on the history of Pennsylvania (former Secretary of the Pennsylvania Historical Commission, State Librarian) explains why grasping the historical context of William Penn's life and times is vital today when he said:
In order to comprehend the character of William Penn, and to understand, with any degree of completeness the government which he founded, one should have a knowledge of the various elements which produced such a character, and of the conditions then existing, not only in England, but throughout the civilized world which made Penn's "Holy Experiment" a real experiment in government. The inherited traits, the environment, the training of any man has much to do with the part which he plays in the world. Every student of biography must take into consideration not only the character of the particular subject of his study, but also the causes which produced such a character, and the environment in which it was developed.
FROM OUT OF DARKNESS
October 31, 1517, marked a significant date in world history as men and women were consequently brought nearer to God when Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses on the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, sounding the trumpet for the Reformation, bringing an end to the thousand-year reign of the Dark Ages. Simply put, the Light was being proclaimed as the Roman Catholic Church, Europe's central religious authority was being called to return to repentance not works and end its religious abuses upon the people.
As a result of Luther's actions the Reformation came in like a flood and created such a religious upheaval that the entire political system of Europe felt its torrent. As many powers struggled for a foothold, England's monarchy, ruled by King Henry VIII, England's king from 1509 to 1547, had become all the more determined to secure its position using fear and manipulation for control. Yet the transformation continued and there arose such groups as the Diggers, Levelers, Baptists, Seekers, Muggletonians, Fifth Monarchists and more creating the most powerful spiritual renewal since the birth of the Church after Christ's resurrection. Religious factions like the Puritans rose up from within the Church and called for reform of the monarchy and the Church.
Like a violent earthquake, the Reformation, and other events of the sixteenth and seventeenth century, shook all of Europe. Political upheaval and social unrest prevailed, devastating England with war, civil and foreign. The thinking of the Dark Ages was proving a contemptible foe against reform. Actions from both sides begged to forfeit the very freedom the Reformation was trying to bring. Tradition, as we shall see, tenaciously resisted change.
POWER STRUGGLE
Reform was in the air but so was the will of the king. And in 1534 decisions were made that set into motion a powerful chain of events — events so powerful that they would not only challenge the Reformation, but also forever challenge the way we look at Church and Government and their involvement, one with the other. King Henry VIII wanted a divorce from his first wife. When the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church refused to grant the king his divorce the King exerted power of his own and annulled the marriage himself. The Pope excommunicated King Henry from Rome. King Henry then broke off relations with Rome and quickly established an autocracy that consolidated the spiritual and political power of England. He then passed the Act of Supremacy. The Act of Supremacy established King Henry as the Supreme Governor of his new church, the Church of England. This political doctrine, which was soon to become known as The Divine Right of Kings, or the Right to Rule, held that Kings and Queens were appointed by God, and therefore, not answerable to any man. Having a divine right gave the king certain privileges and governing the Church was one of them.
After King Henry's death England's political Right to Rule supremacy over her Church continued into the seventeenth century. Queen Elizabeth I ruled England from 1558 to 1603, and when she died she left no heir apparent to succeed her to the throne. King James VI of Scotland, a Stuart and distant relative to the queen was chosen, and in 1603 became King James I of England, thus uniting Scotland with England. King James had reigned as Scotland's king for thirty-six years and continued the rule upon England by The Divine Right of Kings.
King James also took on the role of Supreme Governor of the Church. Under King James' rule, England's religious and political structure became so closely woven together that the monarchy became intolerant of those who would not conform to the Church. Enemies of the Church became enemies of the State, and therefore, a threat to national security.
Many, including Parliament, were beginning to feel that too much power lay in the hands of the king. The Puritans wanted to see the Church purified from within (thus their name). King James was initially sympathetic towards them, for he too had been raised a Calvinist. He appeased their grumbling by authorizing the first printing of the English translation of the Bible in 1611. Many Puritans, however, fled to the New World to escape persecution, and founded the Massachusetts Colony of Plymouth in 1620.
King James died in 1625, and his second son, Charles, was made king over England. Ascending to the throne of his father, King Charles I also took upon himself The Divine Right of Kings. He too brought both Scotland and Ireland under English rule and pushed them both to conform to the Church of England. In 1642 rivalry between Parliament and the king's monarchy broke out in one of the greatest upheavals in British history. Led by Puritan General Oliver Cromwell, the Puritans, along with the Scots, sided with Parliament and revolted against the Irish-backed monarchy, thereby starting the English Civil War.
King Charles lost the war, was captured by the Puritans and beheaded in 1649. Cromwell rose to the throne, taking the title, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth. His rule, however, was short-lived; he died in 1658. Weary of Puritan restrictions, many were ready for a return to the monarchy. The year 1660 brought the dawn of the Restoration, bringing back to the throne of England the Stuarts. King Charles II, a Stuart and son of the deceased, ascended to the throne of his father.
The Stuarts had come back into power during the emergence of the Age of Reason where secularism had penetrated its way into the religious mainstream. As early as 1648, schools of thought were asking questions like, "Who needs God? Does man need to answer to an invisible creator?" The Restoration subsequently became a free-spirited, pleasure loving time in which theatre, fanciful dress, music and dance, poetry and romance flourished. Some let their inhibitions go wild, giving rise to brawling and dueling, seduction and scandal, and the king was no exception.
In 1665 war broke out between England and the Dutch as the Bubonic Plague (the Black Death) besieged London. The plague claimed the lives of more than one hundred thousand within one year, taking as many as seven thousand lives a week. Corpse-haulers pushed open carts through the cobble stoned streets of London, crying, "Bring out your dead." Immediately following the plague, in September of 1666, four-fifths of London was destroyed as the "Great Fire" swept through the city. Many believed that God was punishing the city for its sins.
Within this chaotic environment William Penn was raised, the eldest of three children, born October 14, 1644 to the affluent Vice-Admiral, Sir William and Lady Margaret Penn.
THE CALL
Amid these turbulent times, at the age of twelve, profound disillusionment began to touch the young William. Probing for answers to great injustices he could not reconcile, he found a great storm in his own conscience beginning to unravel the English traditions to which he was being groomed. That would comprise a difficult plight for any pre-teen — on the one hand groomed to continue the values and traditions of a wealthy responsible heritage, and on the other impelled by his conscience to challenge and resist that very life he was to inherit. In the midst of this turbulence, God visited William in a dramatic way. Listen to Dr. Donehoo as he relates this revealing account of twelve-year-old William Penn while he was alone at school.
He was suddenly surprised with an inward comfort; and, as he thought, an external glory in the room, which gave rise to religious emotions, during which he had the strongest conviction of the being of God, and that the soul of man was capable of enjoying communication with Him. He believed also, that the seal of Divinity had been put upon him at this moment, or that he had been awakened or called upon to a holy life.
Donehoo suggests it must have been the same sort of experience:
As in the case of the vision of the Apostle Paul, when on the way to Damascus, (because) no matter what it was or how it was brought about, it was something which changed and then moulded the boy's whole after life, as the vision did that of the Apostle. The difference in the two is that one came to a man of mature life and experience, and the other came to a boy without experience in life. The "vision" of the Apostle has changed the history of the world, and the more I (Donehoo) study the life and influence of William Penn the more I am inclined to believe that it also, in a different way, has changed the history of America, if not the civilized world.
How unusual Penn was, in his day, to experience God so personally, acutely, at that tender age. For the remainder of his youth he pursued the God Who was much more manifest to him than the life of affluence and advantage he was inheriting.
THE TRADITIONS OF MEN
At age sixteen, in 1660, William Penn entered Christ Church College, Oxford. It was here that William first heard, and was stirred, by the preaching of the Quaker, Thomas Loe, never realizing then how Loe would be used to speak into his life seven years later, finally and forever altering his destiny.
At Oxford young William learned of the Quaker's desire to have a refuge in the New World to escape persecution for not conforming to the State's prescribed form of worship.
By May of 1661, Parliament passed a total of four laws collectively known as the Clarendon Code, sharply restricting the free exercise of religion. The Corporation Act required all municipal officers to participate in the sacraments of the established Church. In May of 1662, Parliament also passed the Quaker Act, making it illegal for Quakers to gather in groups of more than five members under the pretense of worship. The second stage of the Clarendon Code declared the Act of Uniformity, which required all clergy to follow without variation the prescribed Prayer Book in the services they conducted.
Penn ... knew first hand that God personally interacts with men.
* * *
These rules, acts, laws and codes greatly impacted William Penn, who by his own irrefutable testimony knew first hand that God personally interacts with men. He was greatly disturbed. He wondered how any man could dictate or prescribe the way others could or couldn't worship God. Such control was a violation of his conscience. For Penn, the rhetorical question was, "Fear men or choose God?" Penn's actions to choose God became clear and unequivocal.
A FATHER'S DETERMINATION
After two years at Oxford, William Penn was expelled for being too religious and a non-conformist. This was a severe blow to the vanity of Penn's father, Sir William Penn, who was a highly favored knight of the king, served as the Admiral of Ireland, Governor of Kinsdale, commissioner in the British Navy, and held a seat in Parliament's House of Lords. He became indignant over his son's expulsion because he knew it was due, in short, for his consorting with Quakers, a common and vulgar class of people, as they were then regarded. This was not the true aristocrat his father was trying to produce and he could not tolerate this kind of behavior. William Penn's return home in 1662 was met with "whipping, beating, and turning out of doors," as Penn would later write.
In an effort to separate him from the influence of these religious fanatics, Sir William then sent his son on a two-year stay to Paris with a company of young noblemen from the best of society, and as much money as he could spend. Sir William thought he could liberate his son from his over-religious ways by "baptizing" him in the "ways of the world."
In August of 1664, Sir William brought Penn back from Paris to London, happy to see a change of attitude and appearance taking shape in his son. It appeared to Penn's father that the two years in Paris had distanced his son from the fascination of his earlier "religious" experiences and that he was finally succumbing to the established social order. From outward appearances, Paris had indeed made its mark on young Penn. It is written by Samuel Pepys (Peeps), a diarist who lived next door to the Penns, that William Penn portrayed, "A great deal if not too much of the vanity of the French garb, and affected manner of speech and gait."
Listen to Penn defending himself years later, in a trial, regarding allegations of the same,
'I make this bold challenge to all men, women and children upon earth, justly to accuse me with ever having seen me drunk, heard me swear, utter a curse, or speak one obscene word ... I speak this to God's glory, that has ever preserved me from the power of those pollutions, and that from a child begot an hatred in me towards them.'
A FAITH THAT OVERCOMES
In February 1665, Admiral Penn enrolled his son at the London law college, Inns of Court, in its prestigious law school, Lincoln's Inn, to study law and rub shoulders with other sons of the rich and powerful. But William's time at Lincoln's Inn would be short-lived. In the spring of that same year, the school was closed due to the outbreak of the plague.
In the spring of 1666, Admiral Penn sent William to Ireland, first to Dublin, and then to Shanagarry Castle to manage the Penn estate. While in Dublin, William, now a trained and accomplished swordsman, voluntarily joined a military force that helped put down an insurrection that occurred among the English soldiers. With the taste of battle running in his veins, William Penn contemplated following his father's military footsteps and was eager to take command of the company at Kinsdale, Ireland. His father, however, feeling William was too young to move into such a position, denied his request. Moreover, Sir William was angered at his son's continued association with Quakers, even in Ireland. This decision caused the Admiral to play into the hands of eternal destiny for his son.
William Penn, now twenty-two, aware of the world's attempt to overtake his faith, learned that Thomas Loe was preaching in nearby Cork. He had to hear this man again. Attending the meeting, Penn heard a message that released the conviction he had held inside which harmoniously confirmed the vision he had received as a twelve-year-old boy.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The Seed of a Nation"
by .
Copyright © 2008 Darrell Fields.
Excerpted by permission of Morgan James Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Foreword,
Introduction,
Part One: Promise,
1 Into the Light,
2 The Architect of Freedom,
3 The Seed of a Nation,
4 Born of Covenant,
5 William Penn Removed,
Part Two: Broken Trust,
6 The Gathering Storm,
7 The Disgrace of the Colonies,
8 The French Make Their Move,
9 Distant Thunder,
Part Three: A Time for War,
10 Forlorn Hope,
11 Lightning Strikes,
12 The Fury of the Storm,
13 The Final Dispossession,
Part Four: Reconnecting,
14 Rediscovering America,
15 Putting an End to Hostility,
16 Keeping Covenant,
17 Replanting the Seed,